attorne attorney general merrick garland announcing he will give david weiss special counsel status to investigate the president's son. hello and welcome everyone, i'm sandra smith. gillian, great to have you back. >> gillian: this is "america reports." garland says weiss told him he wanted to be given special counsel status to continue his probe into hunter biden. this after insisting for months that step was not necessary. >> sandra: the timing of this announcement is certainly being highlighted at this hour, and raising big questions about how the probe will intersect with a separate congressional investigation. and a draft plea deal between hunter's attorneys and weiss that's currently being reworked. >> gillian: lindsey graham as well as house ways and means committee chair jason smith are both here to react. >> sandra: mark meredith, live at the justice department at this hour for us. why did the attorney yes decide to do this and decide to do this now, mark? >> sandra, good afternoon to you. the u.s. attorney general merrick garland says it's because the u.s. attorney asked for

attorney david weiss as special counsel in the hunter biden investigation. e one behind the botched plea deal which was intended to shield hunter biden from all charges in the future. david weiss came up with that, the plea agreement blew up after a federal or judge raise concern that hunter would receive immunity from any potential criminal charges garlands move to appoint a special counsel for the biden probe could put a freeze on the gop's investigation of president biden and the biden family by stopping any information flow. the special counsel was announced one day after house oversight committee chairman james comer told me that the walls are closing in for the biden family and he's planning to subpoena biden family members as he released new bank records which appear to show millions of dollars additional millions taken by joe, hunter and biden family members. here is james comer with me on thursday "mornings with maria" on fox business. >> we are going to subpoena the family, were putting the case together to win in court. with the opposition and obst

in the statement he says, david weiss can't be trusted and this is just a new way to whitewash the bidenily's corruption. weiss has signed off on a sweetheart plea deal that was so awful and unfair that a federal judge rejected it. we will continue to pursue facts brought to light by brave whistle-blowers as well as weiss's inconsistent statements to congress. the statement coming from a spokesperson for the chairman of the house judiciary committee. it's important to note, dana, once again, that house republicans are looking very seriously when they return in september at opening an impeachment inquiry into president joe biden. and based off this statement, obviously, it makes it clear, they are not slowing down their investigation. in fact, this is adding fuel to that fire. >> very interesting. maybe not surprising. lauren, thank you so much. >>> i want to go to kara scannell. you have the first statement from hunter biden's attorneys. what are they saying? >> we got a statement from chris clark, one of the lead criminal attorneys representing hunter biden and he says the attorney gene

david weiss requested the status change.arland did grant that. >> this comes just a few hour after trump's lawyers and special counsel prosecutors appeared for the first hearing in the election interference indictment. a key ruling could come down at any moment. >> we're on top of this. >>> let's star with the hunter biden news. kara, tell us about this special appointment. >> merrick garland announced this a little less than an hour ago, that david weiss, overseeing the investigation into hunter biden, requested special counsel on tuesday. garland said he agreed to grant that. what this special counsel status means is david weiss, the u.s. attorney for delaware, will have authority to investigate this case anywhere in the u.s. that's been an issue, because hunter biden lives in california. one of the issues having to do with this investigation is his failure to fay taxes, and thinks tax preparer was in washington, d.c. so this gives him broad scope. he'll put together a report at the end of the investigation provided to gar

he tried to give david weiss the benefit of the doubt, there were bureaucratic roadblocks, administrative delays but what it's come down to is weiss and garland told the american people some of it wasn't true and for them to double down on the still -- that train has left the station, the time has come to appoint an independent special counsel. to select weiss at this point is to spit in the face of americans. >> martha: andy mccarthy says it's improper to appoint someone who is part of the government, the whole concept as you want to appoint someone who's outside of the whole situation to be impartial. thank you very much, good to see you as always. let's check in with senior congressional correspondent chad pergram and get the latest on how this is being received on capitol hill. >> republicans called for a special counsel but not david weiss since he can't be nullified plea deal with hunter biden. >> i have some question about weiss doing it because johnson and i sent all of this material we had from the cafe bank with regard to payments that were made to hunter biden, they never did a

what mold do you think the david weiss investigation fall, number one. mber two, does this cause impeddism into hunter biden and the biden family? >> jonathan: i think that is the concern, the initial concern is whether weiss is damaged goods. you usually appoint special counsel who will satisfy all sides, that this is someone who doesn't bring baggage to the question and can resolve issues. these whistleblowers were critical of weiss. weiss suggested that he always had this authority. the whistleblowers said he said the opposite to staff, suggested he allowed statute of limitations to run, that is not the suggestion of the department of justice. reappointment of weiss will raise questions. the investigation, no question that making him special counsel will now make it more difficult for congress to get answers from him and from the investigation. it is not likely to deter congress, however, particularly if they are shifting toward impeachment inquiry. it goes to what is the mandate here? this goes beyond hunter biden, they allowed critical crimes to expi

and why did he pick david weiss?nd the answer is that he picked david weiss because david weiss is proven to be a loyal biden foot soldier within the justice department and they did it now because they ran into a roadblock in delaware called judge noraka who called into question the sweetheart deal for hunter biden that they put together so they're using this special counsel appointment as cover to make garland look tough when actually what they're doing is they're going to move this case to dc or california to protect biden. >> laura: well, at this point, sol, is there any way to challenge or any point in challenging weiss's ability to be special counsel given the regulations? >> no, in fact you can't do that. that's a part of the regulations that they're not enforceable in court. but here's a very key thing that nobody is talking about, laura. that plea deal that mike was talking about that blew up had two parts. the plea agreement, and what's called a pretrial diversion agreement. that diversion agreement is for t

david weiss, the u.s. attorney, now special counsel had previously said in writing that he had all the power he needed. he didn't need anymore authority. if he wanted today do charges in d.c., he could reach out to the u.s. attorney in d.c. if he wanted to do charges in l.a., he could reach out. now he has special counsel powers that give him that authority in writing in between we should note there were whistle blowers saying behind the scenes david weiss was complaining i don't have the authority to charge in this city or that state. and the justice department saying, no, no, no these whistle blowers are wrong. it looks as though maybe the whistle blowers are right. >> it's messy. it appears as if here they're trying to insulate at the justice department and the attorney general from what appears to be a case headed to a likely trial of the president's son. and i think they're hoping that this special counsel designation will also insulate them from potential congressional testimony. there were calls for

attorney general merrick garland appointed david weiss as special counsel in the hunter biden investigationd spunt at the justice department. does this mean weiss will have to testify before congress. >> that's a great question. we don't know the answer that's what republicans the delegates want to know. we can safely does testify it will be delayed because of the special counsel appointment. last night hunter biden's attorneys in the late sunday filing filed a motion with the judge in delaware to say if the government says the plea deal on the tax regulation is off so be it. while counsel for the defendant are still prepared to respond to the questions at the july 26 hearing in the united states decision to renege on the plea agreement we agree those issues are new at this point. hunter steams as a diversion program and that gun charge is valid and agreed upon by both parties, david weiss begins the first full week of special counsel this morning this is the same david weiss who sat on a courtroom with hunter biden three weeks ago and prepared to enter into a plea deal. even with news that

agent you put immunity on everything, this is the guy going to run this case the special counsel david weissame up with that idea to give immunity? >> yeah. i mean this is by design. people think that weiss you know, quick to point out that he was appointed under trump as u.s. attorney. >> he was not appointed i spoke to president trump about this he explained it to me what happened two senators from that state democrats, two scenarios came up said okay. we want david weiss, trump appointed him because us two democrat senators who were pushed for him trump didn't just come up with idea positive appoint david weiss, no, no, no he took guidance of two senators both democrats trump told me specifically i did not appoint him the senators wanted him so i went along with what they said what he said to me the other day. >> yeah. that is what i was going to point out the way i it works the senators in the state recommend u.s. attorney, most of the time president will take that rchlgs, happens across the country after every election new slate u.s. attorneys he grew up in biden machine in delaware he

he's laid out on capitol hill some of the costs of, i guess, putting that trust in david weiss. >> theve been extended through an agreement with hunter biden's defense counsel, and they were willing to extend past november 2022. weiss allowed those to expire. i don't claim to be privy to communications, but united states attorney weiss told us he was not the deciding person, that he had requested and was denied special authority after d.c. declined charges and that if california dekleins, he will have to -- declines, he will have to request special authority again. whether the full responsibility elis with weiss or garland is for, ultimately, the public to decide. rachel: yeah. i mean, he's right. and i guess in the eni just want to tie this whole topic up to go this is more than just about corruption and the biden family getting rich. vivek ramaswamy request yesterday when he was in iowa at the political call events there said i believe that it is deeply linked to the policy decisions, this corruption scandal, that the policy decisions that the biden administration is making as we're

they came to congress and said, look, here's what's going on with david weiss. , in the call for about what he anticipates will eventually happen with all of this. watch. >> attorney weiss, attorney general garland will be sitting before these committees one day and will have to admit despite all of their problems, the fact is that this case was presented to two presidential appointed u.s. attorneys in d.c. and california that no charges were brought in those districts tells you everything that you need to know. >> martha: leave it there. quick thought on this. >> obviously everything he's talked about gets more true with more and more confirmation. but in addition to that, now weiss wants to go to california to prosecute. what does that tell you? >> oh, he can't do that. he's like -- it's like you can see the feet going under the water now of this duck. >> this will be a real issue going forward. the more they indict treatment, the more they'll look at him. >> good to see you on "the five." so 2024 shapes up to be a -- let me tell you, folks, this will be a wild

it protects david weiss from coming in front of the committee. any more evidence to show that the department of justice is trying to obstruct our investigation. i think merrick garland made that argument for us today. rachel: congressman mike johnson sits on the house judiciary committee, and he joins us now. congressman, thanks for joining us this morning. i look at what's happening here, this appointment of david weiss, and it's like the democrats aren't even trying to to make this look fair. it's so play pant the -- blatant. what does it tell you, that they don't even seem to care even about the political optics here? >> it is blatant, rachel, and we're all scratching our heads here. they're not hiding the ball anymore. we have good reason not to trust mr. weiss. now, remember that over the course of about five weeks this summer he changed his story three different times. first he said he had all the power he needed for indictment and everything else he was working on and didn't need special counsel designation. a couple weeks later, to fit me

attorney david can weiss. weiss is the prosecutor who already had offered a sweetheart deal who said at one point he didn't have the power to do more, and now weirdly -- said he didn't need the power after that, that that he had plenty of power, and now weirdly he's got the power. so none of it meshes up with the story the he's told throughout time, and it count make sense as to why he would be the appointee of merrick garland. rachel: yeah, particularly when the whistleblowers accused him of being the one who thwarted investigations leading, you know, into -- you know, that could lead in to joe biden. this is somebody who has a basically years of loyalty, of having proven his loyalty to the to the biden family. so, again, really odd choice for special counsel, and joe biden, by the way, wassed asked about this as he was leaving for delaware on yet another vacation. [inaudible conversations] >> reporter: mr. president, are you under investigation? [inaudible conversations] [background sounds] joey: you know, w

whistleblower gary shapley testified in may that david weiss wanted potential counsel status because felt limited in his powers to fully investigate and charge hunter biden. weiss then denied that to be true. here's one of shapley's attorneys. >> to use that very same person to go ahead and elevate them to special counsel status when he has been claiming to congress all along that he didn't need it seems like an odd choice. >> reporter: critics also argue appointing a sitting u.s. attorney goes against doj regulations which state that a special counsel should come from the outside the justice department. charles? charles: thank you very much. so what is the impact of the special counsel appointment on hunter biden in this probe? former acting u.s. attorney general matthew whitaker joins me now. the initial reaction was, okay, this was all done to sort of create, delay this -- to run the clock out, to postpone think sort of real sort of -- any sort of real sort of conclusion until after the election. we already, you heard some of these sound bites coming into it. what are your thought

the decision to select david weiss not so good. look, the white house has been hammering the point that he's a trump appointee. at this point, i care less about who appointed him. the question is does he have a commitment to pursue this investigation, get to the truth wherever it lies and bring whatever charges are appropriate. based on his conduct to the investigation, based on the plea agreement that he pushed that imploded in court, i don't have that confidence. so i think it's an open question as to how actively he's going to pursue this investigation and it wouldn't surprise me at all the he tries to reneg on this commitment to go before congress and explain himself. >> martha: the biden attorneys, hunter biden attorneys, say the prosecution -- that the doj reneged on their sweetheart deal. they're angry. they say they're not necessarily going to go to trial here. as far as they're concerned, this agreement is still on the table in one form or another. karl, the question is what the political impact is. i found this interestin

so yes i would love to see special counsel but not david weiss.t are we going to seat next hunter biden is aware the going to have him be special counsel to represent himself? >> it is conceivable this investigation could be held essentially under wraps until after the election. do you see that potentially happening here? clicks it's clearly the biden strategy there with the kick the can down the road to get there in november of next year. that is in the strategy along with think of at this with joan hunter biden had nothing to hide particularly joe biden why not just release your bank records question of why not cooperate with the investigation and this could be over in a week or two if you are clean, if you have done nothing wrong but if you were trying to hide things they are doing every thing in their power, it appears anyway they are trying to delay, delay, delay. >> the irs supervisor ray shapley testified david weiss told him he had asked to be appointed special counsel much earlier in this investigation and was denied. now if that is true

rachel: essentially david weiss is where all the investigations will go to die. will: we will find out. we going to turn to headlines. joey: the wife of suspected gilgo beach serial killer is saying she will sue police for destroying her family home while searching for evidence. her husband rex here man is charged with murdering dream women on long island, a prime suspect in a fourth murder. she is also revealing a battle with cancer and now fears losing her health insurance as her strange husband faces a long legal battle she filed for divorce last month, he has pled not guilty to the servant's crimes. ohio republicans are sounding the alarm as state progressives try to get rid of police protections in a new state constitutional amendment. the new amendment will get rid of qualified immunity for officers and state workers, ohio secretary of state posting i told you they are trying to turn ohio into california. now they're coming after our police. lionel messi scoring as they defeat charlotte fc 4 - 0. >> scores another one. lionel messi move on to the cup semi f

judge, your reaction to the place, the prosecutor, the same guy david weiss who has looked into this s? >> jeanine: you know, it is kind of hard to convey my feelings because i am furious. number one, stop laughing, lawrence. number one, this guy, weiss, is compromised. he is untruthful. he is not capable of being a special counsel. number one, a special counsel should be from outside the government, not someone inside the government because this is a conflict of interest case. okay, but more importantly is this. david weiss is the one who put together the plea deal that was rejected by a federal judge. that plea deal was not only a sweetheart deal, it was corrupt. what it is was it gave hunter biden legal immunity in perpetuity. that means for the rest of his life he could never be charged with a crime. now, the amazing part of it is then why slide and he said but the case is still under investigation. why? because he didn't want the republican house to investigate. so then merrick garland comes out and he says tuesday, weiss said he wants to be special counsel. why? weiss finishes n

biden retained david weiss. there's a reason for that. this is not situation where you can really trust i think what he's going to do and that he really is a special counsel because he's not really the definition of a special counsel. cheryl: merrick garland was the one that gave him the appointment. it was reported, not confirmed, that david weiss wanted to be a special counsel, wanted the appointment. merrick garland said no. that tells me merrick garland was trying to bury this, trying to suppress the hunter biden story and the whistleblowers, they're being vindicated now, the ones that actually were brave enough to go in front of congress and say i saw a lot of things and the way the irs was investigating hunter biden on the tax side in particular, those were felony tax charges. gets out of them. you're the attorney. you tell me. >> to your point, you wonder if merrick garland was playing a chess game, looking so many steps in advance, saying if republicans one data control of congress and i have david weiss in this position, prior to

. >> tell me more about special counsel david weiss and what he might do with these new special counwers? >> he was appointed byr president donald trump in 2017 and confirmed unanimously by e senate, so he was something that the biden administration decided to keep on because he was already independent, not somebody that biden put into place, now with the special counsel powers it means you have additional resources, a budget to bring in additional staff if you want also remove him from the day-to-d oversight of the justice will be able to continue to u invee this as they have been, and also allowed to look into charging any potential crimes in other jurisdictions, he doesn't have to stick in delaware, where the case has gummed up before one judge, he can pursue charges and other jurisdictions, that gives them some of the additional authorities and a report required, garland said he will make that public. >> david weiss has been investigating this for about five years, i think it's a legitimate question, why now, why did he ask just on tuesday for special counsel powers, he had asserted

keep in mind that david weiss is also the u.s. attorney for delaware.blicans, that this was pawned off and that they were getting orders from the department of justice, that somehow they got bigfooted. and then you had this plea deal with hunter biden and, of course, that got thrown out of court just a couple of weeks ago. so republicans, while some might applaud the idea of a special counsel, they probably don't like david weiss. and keep in mind that david weiss indicated he was willing to come talk to the judiciary committee sometime this fall. he gave them four dates in september and october and whether or not he will now come now that he is the special counsel, that is up in the air. ashley: you know, it's interesting, and i know we don't have all the details, in fact, we have few details, chad, but could this interfere with the house oversight committee's desire to issue a subpoena to the bidens to talk about their business dealings? could potential people who would be subpoenaed say, well, you know what? there's an investigation going on right no

david weiss has been given the job, the u.s.ppy to go along with the sweetheart deal including lifetime immunity for hunter biden or so incompetent he walked into court not knowing what was in his own deal. jonathan turley put it this way. >> jonathan: for many, this is like solving the mutiny by making captain bly admiral. it doesn't address the underlying problem. he has been accused of tipping the bidens off and time was allowed to expire and came up with minor charges while there were felonies out there that could have been charged. why appoint this person, you are supposed to appoint someone unsailiable. >> kayleigh: two huge problems, federal regulation 603, qualification of special counsel. special counsel shall be selected from outside the united states government, as u.s. attorney in delaware, we know david weiss is a part of the u.s. government. problem number two, brought it up on friday, gary shapley and joey ziegler, here is what they had to say about the new special counsel. watch. >> the u.s. attorney in delaware

members are blasting the appoint of david weiss as special counsel. after a judge -- plea deal which the judge. >> who in their right mind believes changing the title of what you call mr. weiss solves all the problems associated with mr. weiss? >> handcuffed weiss in his investigation of hunter biden. it was thought that weiss controlled the investigation. g.o.p. members wanted a special counsel for hunter biden, just anyone besides weiss. >> weiss is the single architect over that sweetheart plea agreement deal that the judge in delaware throughout just a few weeks ago as saying it was unfair. i am very fearful that appointing a special counsel is just an attempt to stonewall congress' investigation of the biden family. >> with his new assignment, it is unclear if weiss will appear before the house judiciary committee. weiss remains u.s. attorney for delaware. weiss told lawmakers he would speak to the committee chair by ohio's jim jordan in the fall. weiss even gave the committee a set of four dates. jordans committee expects weiss to testify. but p

david weiss was the u.s. attorney handpicked to lead this investigation who spent the last five years covering it up. >> this is a joke. not only did weiss drag his feet for five years and try to negotiate a sweetheart plea deal with the president's son, he also let the statute of limitations run out. >> harris: critics are accusing the white house of avoiding questions on all of it. karine jean-pierre, the white house press secretary, last held an official press briefing july 27th. there is one on the schedule for today 3:00 p.m. eastern. we'll cover it. in "focus" this hour, former acting attorney general matt whitaker. first let's go to jack -- >> there is criticism of the david weiss appointment and also criticized the plea deal he pushed through rejected by the delaware judge. hunter biden's attorney is suggesting that if david weiss ends up bringing any more charges than were already brought against hunter, it will be because of political pressure. >> everything else had been thoroughly looked at so is t

david weiss question, original question, which is very important.dly had been investigating for four years, entering year five. when you listen to the irs whistleblowers, they were very, very clear, what reason would career whistleblowers have to lie and put their career and pension on the line? those career whistleblowers, okay, they said that david weiss said to all of them as they were taking contemporaneous notes in fact he did not have jurisdiction over hunter biden in relation to other investigations like out in washington, d.c. and out in california. merrick garland testified under oath that in fact he did have that jurisdiction, that is an open question. bottom line is simple, why pay someone with no experience who at the time is admitted crack addict, millions of dollars for seemingly no other reason except for the brand devon archer talks about and i can tell you the brand is not hunter biden. the brand is joe biden, vice president. all fingers point to that. and one other point, eric scherwin was like the money man for this operation and

attorneys like david weiss.and judiciary probes into the biden family because, you know, as soon as comer was saying ooh i'm going to subpoena joe biden, ooh i'm going to subpoena hunter biden, then you have, you know, u.s. attorney david weiss named as special counsel. how are you guys going to fight this? is are you going to continue with an impeachment inquiry in we've got greg steube filing articles on that today. >> absolutely. we should absolutely do an impeachment inquiry. this is is as corrupt as everything else that they do, excuse my -- i've been doing a lot of talking today -- and they deserve to go through this process and to have real justice. he cannot be the special counsel. it's against state statute. so we've got to fight hard on this. what they're trying to do is be real cute here and real corrupt as usual and say, well, we really can't give you anything because there's an ongoing investigation. they've had this for five years. they're not going to do anything. we need the impeachment inquiry t

you got david weiss as special counsel in the probe of special biden's son, hunter. >> upon considering, i have concluded that it is in the public's interest to appoint him as special counsel. this confirms my commitment to provide mr. weiss awesome the resources he requests. it reaffirms that mr. weiss has the authority he needs to conduct a thorough investigation and continue to take the steps he deems appropriate independently. based only on the facts and the law. >> let's break it down. david weiss is the same prosecutor who cooked up the original sweetheart deal that hunter kind of blew up, a judge kind of blew it up as we take a closer look. they realized it is ridiculous and it does not involve of his bus business dealings. so, as for the big guys involvement in the new hunter's special counsel. the doj is declining to comment on whether president biden is under investigation. for now, we'll have to take joe as his words that he never talked shop with hunter. >> i have never discussed my business or their business or my son's or daughter's. >> i never spoke to my son about his ov

but today we heard from attorney general merrick garland, who announced that david weiss has now asked to be made special counsel. >> on tuesday of this week, mr. weiss advised me that, in his judgment, his investigation had reached a stage at which he should continue his work as a special counsel. upon considering his request, as well as the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter, i have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint him. >> and joining me now for a first exclusive interview since that announcement from the attorney general, merrick garland, today is one of hunter biden's attorneys, abby lowell. abby, thank you for being here tonight. first, when did you find out about the attorney general's announcement today? did you have any idea this was coming? >> i think all of us found out about the time you all started finding out, which is somewhere between mid-morning and the time the attorney general spoke. while we didn't know that was going to happen, given what's happened in the case, it wasn't a surprise there would be some announcement to see where

attorney david weiss as special counsel in hunter biden probe the appointment allows wise to prosecute any district fit rather than delaware, maria asked texas senator ted cruz about this on "sunday morning futures" yesterday. >> your reaction to david weiss named special counsel. >> he is a wildly inappropriate person to be special counsel we should have a special counsel, number one, we should have a special counsel to investigate merrick garland, for whether he lied under oath to congress in response to questioning from me, number one, and when he committed obstruction of justice those are both allegations, that came from the whistleblowers, number two, we need a whistleblower not to go back, and bury what hunter biden did what david weiss has been doing for five years what we need a special counsel to investigate joe biden, and the 20 million dollars that his family received while he was vice president, allegation now is for official favors that he was selling that is bribery, it is not a little gun charge on hunter, it is bribery of the president of the united states what allegati

there is nothing independent about david weiss. give it back to the us attorney who we thought we had at a level of integrity to give him back an opportunity. to redo what was already supposed to be done? it is a one —- ridiculous and absurd. it is absurd. >> jesse: it stinks and it is sleazy and it is absurd. every voter sees that but what does that tell you? that the biden family is terrified of scrutiny that they would go to this corrupt level in public and try to obstruct this investigation. >> 100 percent. at the end of the day they have the statute of limitations on their side. they have the trump indictments pending and looming all of their money is on the points they think the trouble be convicted of something put the light on trenton take a light off of the bidens. by the way jesse, do think it's a coincidence that today, on the slow medianews cycle that garland stands there in front of the teleprompter? he doesn't even have the level of integrity to be speaking freely without have to script out a statement and then run of

attorney david weiss, the never endingeg

a lot of what we've heard today from merrick garland and david weiss does not answer many of the questions about why it took to this point for weiss to be named a special counsel, and whether this is simply did bringing charges against hunter biden and moving to trial in different jurisdictions or whether there's more that david weiss wants to investigate. >> sara murray, thank you so much. i want to bring in former federal prosecutors joseph more rare i don't and an cure ka dory. oops glad both of you are here tonight. first of all, if you were hunter biden, you're looking at your attorneys and probably saying to yourself, what happened from the time that we thought we had a plea deal, everything signed, sealed, delivered, it was mine, to this point in time? and now you've got the special counsel. the wig question everyone's asking is, why do you think this happened now? is it appropriate, do you think, that merrick garland has appointed david weiss to really elevate him to that special counsel status? what do you think? >> i mean, i think it was the best of a bunch of bad options. frankl

former president trump but today we heard from attorney general merrick garland who announced that david weiss now asked to be made special counsel. >> on tuesday of this week mr. weiss advised me that is -- in his judgment is investigation had reached a stage in which he can continue his work as a special counsel. i consider his request as well as the if ordinary circumstances related to this matter so i have decided it is within the public interest to appoint him. >> joining me for an exclusive interview is one of hunter biden's attorneys, abby lowell. thank you for being here. when did you find out about the attorney general's announcement? >> i think all of us found out about the time you found out which was somewhere between midmorning and the time the attorney general spoke and while we didn't know that was going to happen given what was happening it wasn't a surprise to see where it went from here. >> i am assuming what you are referencing is how the legal team and david weiss are trying to privately negotiate a plea deal. were you surprised that trent fall asked to be made special coun

>> we got the surprise announcement from attorney general merrick garland where he said that david weiss, the u.s. attorney in delaware appointed by former president trump and asked to stay on for this very investigation, merrick garland said that weiss had asked him on tuesday to be appointed special counsel, to give him greater authority in this investigation, and garland was saying it was really in the public interest to do this. take a listen. >> i have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint him as special counsel. this appointment confirms my commitment to provide mr. weiss all the resources he requests. it also reaffirms that mr. weiss has the authority he needs to conduct a thorough investigation and to continue to take the steps he deems appropriate independently based only on the facts and the law. >> now, it's not clear what led weiss to change his mind and decide he did need special counsel status. as you'll remember hunter biden had reached a plea agreement with weiss' office in which he would have pled guilty for two misdemeanors for not paying taxes on time

jason. >> well look, david weiss is highly conflicted. he should have never been able to take on this case given the proximity to the president. they should have named a special counsel because of the conflict of interest with the president. >> harris: a different special counsel. >> a different special counsel. the statute says it is supposed to be somebody from outside of government. it shall. it does not say it may. it says it shall be somebody from outside the government. this guy is highly conflicted. then the more revelations about the proximity to the president in his past, why is he still allowed to do it? chairman jim jordan is right. this is the way our government is supposed to work. oversight committee, judiciary committee should have access and be able to interview the people there. d.o.j. should not be giving a stiff arm and thwarting the ability to do its job and interview these people. they cannot make these people unavailable. >> harris: david weiss isn't just somebody connected to government. he remains -- remains merric

thanks to gregg jarrett, merriccsr k waved his magic wank and he just promotede david weiss. that is the same federal prosecutorsa , th, the one who n been slow walking the criminal probe into huntenter bidr bidenr several years. he's the guy that allowed the statute of limitations to expire on multiple major felonies before majoe, of cours, then trying to put together that sweetheart, you kno w, , little deal with hunter, no jail timane ite and tie it up w, neat little bow and, you know, h wover it all up. a sweetheart deal that noejecte one else will get. that, of course, rejected by the federalhe who thankfullya in delaware, actually read the fined th print in this. it was a complete get out ofe jail free card, a blatant attempt to sweep all biden allegationt sweeps, joe and huu under the rug without ever implicating the big guy or fox torcing his beloved son to go t go. weiss was gifting hunter a deal that involvenvolved two misdemer tax violations. by the way, his office had is officrecommended. e and of course, the deferred guna charge thargt his own office ha been sayi

but the white house gave its first response since david weiss, the u.s. attorney leading the probe into biden's son, was granted special counsel status. >> the white house hasn't been involved. just to be clear again, certainly i would refer you to any questions about this specifically to the department of justice and certainly to hunter biden's personal representatives. >> weiss now has broad ability to bring new charges, including in jurisdictions outside delaware. hunter biden's attorney already suggesting if that happens, political pressure will be the cause. >> if the now special counsel decides not to go by the deal, then it will mean that he or they decided that something other than the facts and the law are coming into play. the question should be asked. what infected the process? >> add that skepticism from biden's orbit to criticism from the right over weiss' investigation so far. >> not only did weiss drag his feet for five years and try to negotiate a sweetheart plea deal with the president's son, he also let the statute of limitations run out

david weiss himself had also said that.ald trump as president and when biden became president biden took over the white house, he didn't stand aside, he allowed the investigation to continue. i think there are questions being asked in terms of david's investigation which has been going on for a few years where the charges that he brought against hunter biden too narrow because remember, hunter biden was facing charges of not being honest about his drug addiction on a farm to buy a gun, and also filing his taxes late. so there are questions now will david weiss expand his investigation, which he will, but will there be more serious charges facing hunter biden, also, you know, it's potentially possible that he could face a criminal indictment and possibly a trial. that could face a criminal indictment and possibly a trial-— possibly a trial. that is remarkable information _ possibly a trial. that is remarkable information that _ possibly a trial. that is remarkable information that we _ possibly a trial. that is remarkable in

david weiss is not to be trusted. this is a sham, from the get go. but don't take my word for it. career irs investigators, they were so appalled at the highly unusual way that weiss conducted the entire investigation, that they sacrificed their own privacy and careers to come forward as very credible whistleblowers, and they testified before congress. take a look, let's take a look back. >> in november of 2022 the statute of limitations was set to expire for the 2014 and 2015 charges in dc, which included the 2014 felonies for the attempt to evade or defeat tax and fraud or false statement regarding burisma income earned by hunter biden in those years. the statute of limitations had been extended through an agreement with hunter biden's defense counsel and they were willing to extend past november 2022. weiss allowed those to expire. i don't claim to be privy to united states attorney weiss or attorney general garland's communications, but united states attorney weiss told us that he was not the deciding person, that he had requested and was denied special authority after dc decli

. >> good evening, david weiss is the man. the very same same david weiss who says congressional republicans attempted to paint a sweetheart deal for hunter biden, despite possible or some would say obvious violations. that david weiss is leading an escalation into hunter biden. >> his title became special council today. his powers were the same yesterday. what's different? it does not make any difference to us given what we understood to be the case. >> critics argued weiss should not have been named special counsel citing this as section 6.3 in the doj regulations. a special counsel shall be selected from outside the united states government. >> this is a political decision, not a legal decision. they're trying to put out a fire, and they just poured gasoline on it. nobody in their right mind believes that making him special counsel cleans up the mess that's created. >> lindsey graham there. james comber of kentucky calling garland's announcement to attempt a biden cover up. the president ignored shouted questions as he yet

they have soured on david weiss.s appointed by donald trump originally but they view that plea deal as what they call a sweetheart deal. he has been too easy on hunter biden and the investigation has not been aggressive enough. they think by and large that someone else should be put in charge of the investigation. someone who does not have the same history as david weiss. they do not think david weiss will be able to bring this investigation fully into joe biden where they think the real crimes and political implications might be. >> there has been so much discussion about the political as ancient of the department -- political. how does it feed into that? >> it makes it a little easier for democrats to counter the republican accusations that there is some sort of two-tiered standard of justice. there have been multiple indictments against donald trump while joe biden and his family have been treated differently. now there is a special counsel with all the powers you discussed of special counsel's investigating -- no

maria: david weiss has been named as special counsel.he told you and others that it was not up to him it was above his pay grade to actually decide whether or not to bring charges against hunter. is that right? >> that is right, maria. it was so important i asked him to repeat it. i have provided their names. they received subpoenas now because they were unwilling to cooperate voluntarily. that is what i'm asking for. bring as many people for that have information about this so it is not just me sitting there. not just special agent sitting there telling you what happened. that day, october 7, 2022, i sent the e-mail to executives over me. one of which was there and they corroborated that is exactly what happened during that meeting. maria: what are your thoughts in terms of what went down? david weiss being special counsel now. >> to answer your question, you just have to look at what he allowed to occur during this investigation. there are key witnesses we were not allowed to interview. we were not allowed to ask questions of certain p

david weiss is compromised. merrick garland is compromised.id weiss said to his back in 2022, i can't go further, i don't have the ability to ask questions. that was written, seven people in the room irs fbi and in june he tells jim jordan, i have power i needed and now they say we are going to make him special counsel. shouldn't be because he's working for the department of justice, no independence from merrick garland. number two, statute of limitations already passed on the most serious crimes were he could get serious jail time. number three, david weiss can come in say i've investigated joe biden as special counsel and there's nothing there in the end, i think what you've got is the biden's are covering up and the republicans are in a position where they can't even call david weiss and ask him to testify just like they did when they said the investigation was continuous. >> was ethical to sideline the republicans? this is the first time they started to fight and because of the fighting, it was put on the judge's radar and then the defense

congress wants to hear from david weiss. this will be interesting. plus we've heard it over and over. the economy is getting better. we heard it from the president. not actual people buying food. >> we have the highest price level we've ever had in u.s. history today. that's it. you see prices rise and rising more slowly. that's what people really care about. >> harris: prices are a lot higher than when biden took office. but he is banging the bidenomics drum. republican senator john kennedy in "focus" next. veteran homeowners. if you're on a fixed income, inflation can hit you extra hard, especially if you're using high rate credit cards to take care of your family's expenses. even minimum payments are tough. it's too much and it's time to hit back. with a newday 100 va loan, you can borrow up to 100% of your home's value to pay off those high rate credit cards and other debt. and you can save $500 a month. that's $6,000 a year. living with metastatic breast cancer means i cherish my memories. but i don't just look back on them, i look forward to th

david weiss was named yesterday in an afternoon news conference for merrick garland. re's with the attorney general had to say. [video clip] >> in the july 2023 letter to congress, mr. weiss said he had not asked for special counsel. on tuesday mr. weiss said his investigation have reached a stage at which he could continue his work as special counsel and he asked to be so appointed. upon considering his request and the extraordinary circumstances related to this matter, i have concluded it is in the public interest to appoint him as special counsel. this appointment confirms my commitment to provide mr. weiss all the resources he requests. it reaffirms mr. weiss has the authority he needs to conduct a thorough investigation and continue to take the steps he deems appropriate independently, based only on the facts and the law. mr. weiss will also continue to serve as u.s. attorney for the district of delaware. as special counsel, he will have the authority and responsibility he has previously exercised to oversee the investigation and decide where, when, and whether to